The Multivariate Schwartz-Zippel Lemma

Motivated by applications in combinatorial geometry, we consider the following question: Let $\lambda =({\lambda }_1,{\lambda }_2,\dots ,{\lambda }_m)$ be an $m$-partition of a positive integer $n$, $S_i\subseteq {\mathbb{C}}^{{\lambda }_i}$ be finite sets, and let $S:=S_1 \times S_2 \times \ldots \times S_m \subset $\mathbb{C}$^n$bethemulti-griddefinedby$S_i$\mathrm{.}Suppose$p$isan$n$-variate degree $d$ polynomial. How many zeros does $p$ have on $S$? We first develop a multivariate generalization of Combinatorial Nullstellensatz that certifies existence of a point $t\in S$ so that $p(t) \neq 0$. Then we show that a natural multivariate generalization of the DeMillo-Lipton-Schwartz-Zippel lemma holds, except for a special family of polynomials that we call $\lambda$-reducible. This yields a simultaneous generalization of Szemer'edi-Trotter theorem and Schwartz-Zippel lemma into higher dimensions, and has applications in incidence geometry. Finally, we develop a symbolic algorithm that identifies certain $\lambda$-reducible polynomials. More precisely, our symbolic algorithm detects polynomials that include a cartesian product of hypersurfaces in their zero set. It is likely that using Chow forms the algorithm can be generalized to handle arbitrary $\lambda$-reducible polynomials, which we leave as an open problem.